So cool! I really want to see one close up someday.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=2036700

That’s just an illusion! It’s extremely far away. The launch site is a few km from the nearest public road, and about 10km from the closest town, and I’m viewing it from a few hundred km!

I bet the editor just felt it was better to cut around for the sizzle reel. For the tip-over, I wonder if the booster went kaboom when it hit the water and they want to emphasize the success rather than what could be perceived as a failure. So you’re right, maybe brand image. Maybe one day they’ll finally release the footage!

I think they were more open when they were developing Falcon 9. Based on all these amazing test flights, the engineers still have that magic SpaceX culture, but perhaps the media department has become more corporate.

Thanks!! Yep, lots of planes flying around, going to San Francisco and San Jose!

I love that they showed more of the booster landing footage, but I still wish we could see it hit the water and tip over!

I would also like to see more collaboration, and there are many nuanced reasons why the US would rather not. Just one of them is that this launch resulted in this:

https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1804542638034661522

I can’t imagine being one of the scientists designing and cheering on this mission and then realizing my country’s funds caused that scene. Thank goodness the US doesn’t drop empty stages (containing extremely dangerous chemicals in this case) on populated areas, this kind of behavior cannot be tolerated.

Let’s go!!

I am beyond excited for this! Hope it goes off on the first attempt :)

Dare I say magical? So cool this is happening. Crazy that it’s barely in the mainstream news (at least in my experience).

That’s a lot of confidence! I hope they can start flying and testing it soon. I would LOVE for them to start kicking SpaceX into even higher gear.

I agree with everything you said and especially with the hope for competition (which in some ways there is, SpaceX is just miles ahead), but I just wanted to point out that basically every rocket ever developed was done with government funding :)

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/03/thursdays-starship-flight-provided-a-glimpse-into-a-future-of-abundant-access-to-space/

SpaceX can likely build and launch a fully expendable version of Starship for about $100 million. Most of that money is in the booster, with its 33 engines. So once Super Heavy becomes reusable, you can probably cut manufacturing costs down to about $30 million per launch.

This means that, within a year or so, SpaceX will have a rocket that costs about $30 million and lifts 100 to 150 metric tons to low-Earth orbit.

Bluntly, this is absurd.

For fun, we could compare that to some existing rockets. NASA’s Space Launch System, for example, can lift up to 95 tons to low-Earth orbit. That’s nearly as much as Starship. But it costs $2.2 billion per launch, plus additional ground systems fees. So it’s almost a factor of 100 times more expensive for less throw weight. Also, the SLS rocket can fly once per year at most.

The renders for Starship V2 have a dramatically redesigned hot stage mechanism. My guess is as good as any, but it’s possible the current HSR is so bulky and has nothing in common with the future version that they feel it’s actually more representative to throw it away.

So no in-space engine relight just as we heard recently, but the interesting addition of jettison of the hot stage ring. I really hope that’s temporary!

I also LOVE to see that they want to attempt to relight the raptors and do the flip of Starship survives entry! I wonder how confident they are that it will.

Also in an update, SpaceX noted that both booster engine issues and RCS on IFT-3 were caused by filter blockages and clogged valves. Kind-of fascinating that’s still happening, but I have high hopes they will solve that soon!

What an embarrassment. This vehicle will probably finally fly at some point, but all these delays are humiliating to America’s space program. Incompetence on the part of Boeing.

Beautiful launch, gorgeous jellyfish, perfect landing :)

I can’t wait to see this lift off! I’ve been following closely, but I’m still not sure what was their main hold-up. I really thought they could make early May before, but now late May or early June seem like the closest NET dates.

Either way I hope we’re just a week or two away!

Analyst on Starlink’s rapid rise: “Nothing short of mind-blowing”

I understand the sentiment, but I’m sorry to say I have seen absolutely no data that supports this. Perhaps you’d like to share a source?